Bill to be introduced in Congress to increase US residency positions

U.S. medical schools are increasing enrollments to meet expected shortage of doctors. With at least 12 new medical schools opening and existing ones growing, enrollment is on track to produce 5,000 more graduates a year by 2019.

Every year medical students from USA and around the world apply for residency positions all around US. But many are dealt with disappointment on “no match”.

As of now, there are more residency openings than doctors graduating from U.S. medical schools, as has been the case for many years. This gap traditionally has been filled by graduates of U.S. osteopathic schools and foreign medical schools, including doctors hoping to immigrate to the U.S. and Americans who attend medical programs abroad.

Medicare-funded spots were frozen under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and numerous bills introduced in Congress thereafter to lift the cap have been dealt with rejection.

Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.) and Aaron Schock (R., Ill.) plan to reintroduce a bill seeking 15,000 more U.S.-funded residencies over the next five years, at a cost of about $1 billion a year—a measure likely to face opposition from many.

The Affordable Care Act passed by President Obama called for creating 600 additional primary-care residencies in community health centers, outside of Medicare’s funding for teaching hospitals. The first 44 such residents already started training in 2011. But the funding is guaranteed only through 2015.

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Burhan Ahmed, MD, MACP, MSc is currently Editor-in-Chief at Medicalopedia.org. He completed his residency from Michigan State University in 2015. He has has 14 publications to his name. He is pursuing career in dermatology and practices at Clinique de Dermatology.